Casey McDermott

Casey McDermott is a reporter covering politics, policy and healthcare.

Prior to joining NHPR, Casey worked at The Concord Monitor and held internships at ProPublica, the Student Press Law Center and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

She studied journalism and sociology at Penn State but spent most of her days (and nights) in the newsroom of the independent student newspaper, The Daily Collegian. The Collegian was recognized nationally for its work during Casey's time as its managing editor and editor-in-chief.

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An estimated 12,000 ATV enthusiasts descended on Jericho Mountain State Park in Berlin for the second annual “Camp RZR” festival this weekend, sponsored by off-road vehicle manufacturer Polaris. But trails weren’t the only place where the ATVs’ presence was felt.

Gov. Chris Sununu issued an executive order Thursday creating a new forum aimed squarely at younger Granite Staters: an official “Millennial Advisory Council.”

Sununu, who hails from Generation X and also holds the distinction of being the nation’s youngest sitting governor, wasn’t immediately available for comment on the new panel. So this author — who, in the interest of full disclosure, is also a millennial — caught up with a few of her fellow Granite State twentysomethings about what they want to see out of this new group.

At least 226 people have died from drug overdoses in New Hampshire so far this year. That number is likely to grow, with at least 100 more likely drug deaths still awaiting review by the state medical examiner.

Echoing a pattern we've seen for the last few years, fentanyl is responsible for most of the deaths seen so far in 2017 — almost three-quarters, to be exact.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price made a quick trip to New Hampshire Thursday afternoon to announce $200 million in federal grants targeting community health centers, to increase access to mental health and opioid abuse services.

The Trump administration’s election commission met in New Hampshire on Tuesday, putting a national spotlight on the state’s election processes. Also in the spotlight was the man who’s been in charge of New Hampshire elections for the last four decades.

After three hours of arguments inside a Hillsborough County courtroom in Nashua on Monday afternoon, the fate of the state's controversial new voting law is still up in the air heading into a Laconia legislative special election on Tuesday.

It didn’t take long for Senate Bill 3, the controversial new voting law passed earlier this year, to face legal challenges from opponents who claim it will disenfranchise potential voters. One of the first hearings on the issue will go before a judge in Nashua Monday afternoon.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan called on Secretary of State Bill Gardner to resign from President Trump’s voting commission, after the chair of that same commission wrote a Breitbart column casting doubt on the outcome of last November’s election results in New Hampshire.

A newly released report from the New Hampshire Secretary of State and Department of Safety says a majority of people who used out-of-state IDs to register in last November’s elections haven’t registered vehicles in New Hampshire or gotten in-state drivers licenses in the months since. While this data alone doesn’t provide proof of voter fraud, as NHPR has noted before, it's quickly become fodder in an ongoing debate about New Hampshire’s voting requirements.

Last month, New Hampshire became the latest state to go after Purdue Pharma, alleging the company’s marketing practices were partially to blame for the state’s opioid epidemic. Now, the city of Manchester is also suing Purdue — as well as other opioid manufacturers and distributors — seeking payback for the cost it's incurred because of the drug crisis.

A federal oversight agency’s review of how New Hampshire is spending $18 million in federal election money finds that the state, for the most part, follows the rules. But the back-and-forth within the audit illuminates a larger and long-running tension between the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office and the federal elections officials.

A controversial bill to reform food stamp eligibility drew opposition earlier this year, in part, after revelations it was being pushed by an out-of-state think tank on a nationwide campaign to reform welfare systems. It was shelved back in April but, after a Thursday work session, is now poised to get a second look from lawmakers.

Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan says the office is reevaluating its guidance to cities and towns after “handwritten confidential, non-public information” was found in the public voter checklists of more than 40 New Hampshire communities.

A medical device company setting up shop on the Seacoast is the latest business Gov. Chris Sununu is pointing to as a success story from his effort to promote the state to “100 Businesses in 100 Days” earlier this year.

A new report commissioned by the New Hampshire Insurance Department shows that the people covered by New Hampshire's expanded Medicaid program are younger — but also more expensive — than expected. That’s raising new questions for lawmakers to consider as they grapple with how the program should continue beyond its current expiration date at the end of 2018.

Earlier this year, the legislature passed a package of reforms meant to expand access to mental health treatment. New Hampshire's Department of Health and Human Services is having mixed success soliciting vendors to oversee those changes — they’ve received multiple proposals for some projects but none for others.

Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeff Meyers said he made multiple attempts throughout 2016 to clarify whether the federal government approved of New Hampshire’s use of provider donations to fund its current Medicaid expansion plan — but the agency never gave him a definitive "yes" or "no" answer last year.

Last week, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office took its first steps to sue an opioid company — Purdue Pharma — over its alleged role in the state’s addiction crisis. Now, some local communities may soon follow with lawsuits of their own.